Hey there! Welcome to the Independent Money newsletter 👋 We’ll be exploring the fascinating lives of our favorite entrepreneurs. We’re taking a closer look at their backgrounds, careers, and financial journeys.

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We sat down with Linh DAO Smooke, the co-founder and COO of Hacknoon. She takes us inside her life as an entrepreneur and Mother of 2, sharing valuable insights into her personal finance journey and more.

Linh Dao Smooke runs HackerNoon, a tech publication with 45k+ writers and 5-8M+ monthly readers and also a software company built by a small team of 20-ish talented individuals. HackerNoon raised almost $3M so far, valuing the company at $50M.

Previously, Linh was head of Asia Marketing at Minerva University ($100M in funding) and she also founded the first creativity camp in Vietnam, CKP, which continues to empower Viet students 10 years in. Her experience in education has been instrumental in how Hacker Noon onboards, nurtures, and serves its community of writers and sponsors. She graduated from Brown University with a degree in International Development.

Linh makes sure the light is on at Hacker Noon. Since she joined full time in 2017, Hacker Noon’s traffic, revenue and team quality accelerated and grew many folds.

In her spare time, she sleeps. As a mother of two & an entrepreneur, she doesn’t really have spare time.

Career

What was your first job and how much were you making?

Depending on how you define jobs 😉 but the first “work” item on my resume is this opportunity I created for myself, which was the founder of CKP- the creative kid project- the first ever summer camp for middle school students in Hanoi, Vietnam.. The first job where I got paid was a 5th grade Math teacher for an English school in Saigon, where my monthly salary was 10 million VND or around 400 dollars at the time.

What inspired you to get into tech?

Tech to me is like the air we breathe, as essential to modern daily lives as electricity. So, what got me into tech is just that basic/simple- I think it’s a fundamental right. Specifically though, I got involved in HackerNoon since my husband David (HackerNoon founder and CEO) founded the company and needed a 2nd hand at the time. I joined the company and made our business model (advertising) a bit more viable.

Was there a pivotal moment where your career majorly changed?

Yes- when I became a mother. I was the Southeast Asia Regional Manager of a cutting edge university based in San Francisco (fun fact that’s how I met my husband, it was during one of the business trips to SF), but then we got pregnant and needed to make major life changing decisions. We decided to build our life together in Colorado where we have family support. I changed my career trajectory quickly from education to tech/startups.

Entrepreneurship

What’s one piece of advice you have for entrepreneurs who are hesitant to take the leap or feeling stuck?

Remember that one very brilliant entrepreneur with a world changing idea who was too cautious to launch her startup? Exactly. You will never ever be fully ready, yet go for it anyway. Things will make sense in retrospect. Works for non-career related things too like relationships or parenting.

Was there an “aha” moment where you felt the HackerNoon community coming together and taking off?

When we fundraised for the first time in 2018/2019 via equity crowdfunding. 1300 people ended up contributing as little as 107 dollars to get a piece of HackerNoon, helping us achieve the maximum limit of regulation CF of 1.07M. We’ve raised more since at higher valuations, but that first time was always special because it showed us the power of a community that rallies behind you. From then on, we became a company built on our own terms and made our own software. And that’s no small feat.

Money

Was there a specific money “tip” or something your parents instilled in you growing up? Do you still incorporate it in your financial decisions now?

My parents were middle class Vietnamese who are not particularly savvy with money. However, they were good with managing social expectations and relationships with how much ever wealth they had. From mom, I learned that money won’t always solve problems but it certainly makes life easier when you are generous with people. From dad, I learned that there’s a lot you can do with little money, human ingenuity goes far.

Now that you’re a parent, is there anything in your financial journey that you’ve specifically changed or are starting to do differently?

Yes- I am of a different wealth bracket than my parents and I want to be a bit more financially literate. Things like building credit for ourselves and our kids. Things like putting money in savings up to the FDIC-insured amount. Or investing in a diversified portfolio. My parents were never wealthy enough to think about those. Also they live in Vietnam and American system is vastly different!

For anyone else who is also wanting to learn more about credit check out this resource.

Additionally, is there a money “tip” you’ll be encouraging for your children to start doing?

Yes, my husband and I are huge believers in the idea that creation trumps consumption, so we encourage our kids to always create than to purely consume. We want them to learn the steps it takes to monetize their own creations even if its small. The value is the learning they gain along the way and not necessarily how much money they make.

Is there an area of personal finance that you struggle with the most or wish you knew more about?

I wish being an entrepreneur was considered much less of a risk to mortgage lenders. We bought our home in 2019 but it was hard. Got 3 “no’s” before the final yes.

Do you have a retirement plan in place? What is it?

Sell HackerNoon at a high valuation or make enough money that we live off of dividends.

Are you an entrepreneur that’s still figuring out how to achieve your dream retirement plans — learn more about your retirement options.

What’s your dream retirement goal or destination?

We live in a pretty dreamy place where the majority of residens are retirees already 😅 But perhaps a second place in Hawaii or somewhere more tropical/less cold. I like my life now and dont really wish to retire so soon.

To learn more about Linh Dao Smooke and stay connected, you can visit her website.

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If you want more resources on building wealth as an solopreneur/entrepreneur, check these out:

• The Solo 401k handbook 

• What is a Solo 401k?

• How to Open a Solo 401k

• Common Solo 401k FAQs

• Solo 401k Contribution Calculator 

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